er it is successful in itself."

It is altogether probable that in the strict views then prevailing about
the very letter of the Christian Scriptures, a certain antagonism may
have prevailed, even toward the skill with which he transferred the
sacred narratives into a dramatic form, just as it is found that among
certain pious souls who for the first time yield their scruples so far
as to enter a theatre, the mere lifting of the curtain seems to convey
suggestions of sin. Be this as it may, we find in Longfellow's journal
this brief entry (December 30): "Received from Routledge in London,
three notices of 'The Tragedy,' all hostile." He, however, was cheered
by the following letter from Horace Bushnell, then perhaps the most
prominent among the American clergy for originality and spiritual
freedom:--

HARTFORD, December 28, 1871.

DEAR SIR,--Since it will be a satisfaction to me to express my
delight in the success of your poem, you cannot well deny me the
privilege. When I heard the first announcement of it as forthcoming,
I said, "Well, it is the grandest of all subjects; why has it never
been attempted?" And yet I said inwardly in the next breath: "What
mortal power is equal to the handling of it?" The greater and the
more delightful is my surprise at the result. You have managed the
theme with really wonderful address. The episodes, and the hard
characters, and the partly imaginary characters, you had your
liberty in; and you have used them well to suffuse and flavor and
poetize the story. And yet, I know not how it is, but the part which
_finds_ me most perfectly, and is, in fact, the most poetic poetry
of all, is the prose-poem,--the nearly rhythmic transcription of the
simple narrative matter of the gospels. Perhaps the true account of
it may be that the handling is so delicately reverent, intruding so
little of the poet's fine thinking and things, that the reverence
incorporate promotes the words and lifts the ranges of the
sentiment; so that when the reader comes out at the close, he finds
himself in a curiously new kind of inspiration, born of modesty and
silence.

I can easily imagine that certain chaffy people may put their
disrespect on you for what I consider your praise. Had you
undertaken to build the Christ yourself, as they would require of
you, I verily beli